Vengeance of the Seven
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Sometimes, the best way to ensure a real future free of hurt, you have to turn to different parts of the ancient past. Sometimes, the only way to get revenge on those that hurt you without even laying a finger on you…is to unleash your darkest desires that you keep locked away. If you could unleash every dark aspect of your soul to do good, would you do it? Read and review. Please!
1. To begin anew

Creation began on 06-30-13

Creation ended on 06-27-14

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Vengeance of the Seven: To begin anew

A/N: It's hard to gain recognition for what is the longest story I've written for _Evangelion_, so I'm trying something a little different that's not part of the _My Special Keeper_ universe. I actually enjoyed that I wrote the story. I just wished that there were people that could find enjoyment in it. As always, I'm focusing on the manga version of the franchise.

He'd been avoiding school for more than three months since he'd been freed from the Eva, and there wasn't a day that went by where he was not granted any sympathy or real help from those around him. He'd been drafted back into the cold, soul-rendering war with the Angels, but all he wanted, all he really wanted…was to undo the one thing that he knew he couldn't undo: The death of his friend. By wandering around what was left of the maimed city, Shinji had hoped to outrun his guilt and his lack of any real free will. In addition, it was hard for him to talk to people without them bringing up the Eva, something among his short and simple list that has done nothing but hurt him.

DING-DING-DING! He stopped at the sound of a wind chime, out front of a shop. An antique shop. In fact, this was a shop he was certain hadn't existed in the city before. It was a fading red color on the walls that were flaking off, with an ancient theme, with dragon statues, birds with what looked like long, fiery tails, tigers and snakes atop turtles, with a scent of incense burning.

The sign on the door read _Lost Talismans of Desire_, carved in a jade plaque. He felt drawn to the shop and decided to look inside it. There were many things that looked old and valuable, some of which appeared to be of Asian culture, with others looking like they were foreign.

"Hello?" He called out, and from behind a door separated from the shop by a curtain of string beads came an old man dressed in Chinese robes.

The man looked like he was in his eighties, his skins wrinkled in extremes, his hair receded to where all he had was a withered ponytail, withered fingers with long nails.

"Good day to you, young one," he greeted Shinji, and walked over to a fish tank to dump fish flakes into it. "May I help you?"

"Well, I… I just saw this shop outside and…wondered if you had anything that…" Shinji started, but the elder raised a hand to silence him.

"I have lived a long time, young man," he uttered, "so I have a talent for guessing what it is that people desire…or what it is that they need. What they truly need. You're in need…of a reprieve from pain and despair…and a second chance to turn your present-day life around. But what you also desire, from a dark place in your heart, is vengeance upon…two people that left you alone."

"I…"

"You can't deny it to me, young man. Admit it. Accept it. It is what you want, deep down inside."

Shinji bowed his head to the man and nodded. As much as he wanted to undo the harm he had been made to cause, he also desired some measure of revenge, of justice, against the two people that hurt him the most: His mother and father, who abandoned him years ago.

"Yes," he told the man. "Yes."

"Come with me into the back," the elder instructed him, and Shinji followed him.

The back of the shop was even darker than the front, with shelves full of old books, statues and other items made the room small and narrow-spaced. Shinji assumed that the elder kept a large inventory of replicas of whatever he displayed out front. A large mural on the ceiling caught his gaze now: It was like an ancient painting, faded, displaying seven red and blue, serpentine dragons and seven white and orange tigers, circling a star with seven points. The dragons and tigers looking like they had performed or were performing acts that looked unusual; Shinji saw a tiger and dragon consuming a large feast, a tiger and dragon being reached for by several arms, a fierce tiger and dragon, looking like they were about to engage in a battle, and a tiger and dragon sitting atop large piles of gold, clawing at them as if to keep the gold from spilling over.

"In ancient times, the tiger and the dragon were considered some of the greatest forces of nature in existence," the elder spoke up, as if answering his curiosity. "Two such creatures were viewed as gods by the people of ancient China. Byakko was the White Tiger and Seiryu was the Blue Dragon. But those you see above your head…are not representations of the two gods. They are representations of the Seven, which reside within us all."

"The Seven?" Shinji asked him.

"They are sins higher than all other forms of sinning. Are you familiar with the Seven Deadly Sins?"

Shinji told him that he knew nothing about the Seven Deadly Sins; they were viewed as a form of Christian religion that was banned from the school education system. Then, the elder, who had been rummaging through old chests, pulled out two trinkets. The one in his left hand looked like a piece of metal sculpted into the shape of a crane with an ankh carved into its body, and the item in his right hand looked like a tiger and dragon interlocked by a star with seven points, like the mural on the ceiling.

"The Crane of Renewal…and the Purge of Seven," he revealed to Shinji. "One to return life…and one to bestow vengeance."

He handed them to Shinji, who accepted them without much question.

"Wait," he hesitated now. "I don't have any money on me."

"I don't have much need for money," the elder responded. "They're on the house. Restore the life of your friend, undoing your indirect sin…and settle the score you have with the ones that have wronged you. Use the Crane at night and tell it the name of the life you want to revive…and the Purge by wearing it as you sleep. What happens next will be up to the darkness you have deep within your heart. Sometimes, you cannot fight injustice with justice. You have to use something else, something more, a different form of injustice."

Shinji looked at the Purge and could only wonder how it would help him, but hoped that the elder wasn't pulling his chain with the Crane.

-x-

There had been enough death in the months he'd been in the city, even though the only deaths he'd ever seen were the fall of some of the Angels…and the unjustifiable murder of Toji Suzuhara. The city looked like a large scab that had been patched up too many times and all attempts to make it a place where people could actually live were in vain. It was something Shinji couldn't help but hate about Tokyo-3, almost as much as he hated his father and the Eva. As he returned to Misato's flat, he recalled more information from what was left of the city's library's access to the Internet that helped to enforce further information the elder had given him about the seven sins.

_Seven Deadly Sins,_ he thought, going up in the elevator. _Pride, Greed, Envy, Wrath, Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. According to the elder, everybody is capable of exhibiting one or many of them, but there are very few of them capable of demonstrating all seven at once. By going to sleep with this medallion, all seven sins will awaken within me. I hope this actually works._

Upon reaching Misato's flat, he saw Asuka, looking irritable, as usual.

"And where have you been?" She asked him.

He tightened his grip on the paper bag containing his talismans; as much as Asuka treated him like scum, he didn't want to risk her trying to interfere with his agenda, even when he had no idea on what he was going to do the next day.

"I was out," he answered her, keeping it simple.

"You're as dull as ever," she told him, and left.

He was glad she left now; this allowed him to get his thoughts straightened out before he did anything that was beyond rational…or sane. All he could accept of what he was doing was that there would be no turning back after everything that had happened in the past. He needed to undo the unnecessary and obtain the justice to the injustice he'd been dealt with. He prayed that the two trinkets he got from the old man were really what the man said they were.

-x-

"…With the continued rate of steady progress, Units-00 and 02 will be battle-ready in three more days' time," went Ritsuko Akagi to Gendo Ikari and Kozo Fuyutsuki, inside Gendo's office.

"Very good, Dr. Akagi," Fuyutsuki responded, looking out the massive windows at the Geo-Front.

"Continue with the repairs," said Gendo to her, "and also have the pilots check in for further synchronization testing."

"Yes, sir," Ritsuko responded and left the chamber.

"What's the point of testing him if Unit-01 is suspended, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki questioned Gendo.

"The Third Child's become invaluable," he answered, though that was the only reason; as much as he disregarded his son, he couldn't let an invaluable resource go to waste…until he no longer had a need for it.

"Just because he came back during the last battle doesn't mean he's likely to continue."

But Gendo wasn't too concern; with careful manipulation, he was certain that the boy became attached to the purple behemoth. He made it so that Shinji couldn't get away from Unit-01, even if he wanted to.

-x-

Everyone seemed too busy, too wrapped up in their own, personal issues, to talk about something as trivial as how one's day went at the table of the Katsuragi flat. Dinner was as silent as a person who was mute, and as rigid as a bridge that had been in use for too many years and had become unstable for further use.

When Shinji finished first, he excused himself from the table and went into his room. He looked at the two talismans he had gotten today and then looked out the window at the city that had been maimed enough times to lose interest in the hearts of those that either commuted between it and other places or lived in it in the hopes of getting a fresh start. Then, as his bedtime neared, he looked to the Crane and hoped that what it could do was genuine as he placed the Purge around his neck.

"Toji," he spoke to the Crane, following the instructions the elder gave him. "Toji Suzuhara. Please…bring him back."

He then set the Crane down on his dresser and went to bed.

-x-

Atop a lonely hill overlooking the city, a young teen with greyish hair and red eyes stood in the silent night, dressed in a white school shirt and black pants.

"Hmm?" He went, feeling an unusual energy that didn't seem normal. "How strange."

Then…he felt another wave of energy that was unusual. The first wave felt calming, almost benevolent, but the second wave was that and something else that seemed too commonplace to not understand. He could've almost made out a sound from the second wave, like a…tiger or dragon roaring, only he had never seen either creature before in his life.

-x-

Asuka was the first to awaken from her night of slumber. She exited her room and stepped into the kitchen, but didn't find Shinji there with breakfast on the table. This made her angry.

"Where is that idiot?" She questioned, approaching his room. "Hey, stupid Shinji?! Get up!"

But no response came, so she stepped into his room. He looked like he had a restless night, laying face-down on his futon with some strange object hanging around his neck. It looked like a star with seven points in between a tiger and a dragon.

"Idiot," she muttered, raising her left foot at his right shoulder and kicked him. "Wake up!"

But there was no reaction from being hit by her that he gave to indicate that he was listening to her. She kicked him again, but still didn't get so much as a mumble from him. In fact, she took a closer look at him…and he didn't look like he was even breathing. So she turned him over onto his back and found his chest wasn't rising or falling…and the talisman around his neck started pulsating, as if it was breathing for him. She made an attempt to remove the relic.

_Don't touch it!_ A grand voice shouted at her, in her mind, and she pulled her left hand back from Shinji.

"Misato!" She called for her guardian, running to her room.

-x-

He felt like he was in a haze. A drug-induced haze. The last thing he remembered was a man in white robes telling him that some place where suffering was nonexistent in the sky wasn't ready for him just yet, and that he had to return to his home. He was also informed that a friend of his had made a choice and it would affect every other choice yet to be made. The one place that made any sense to him was the last place he spent any reasonable sense: Tokyo-3 Municipal Junior High School.

Several girls looked up at him…and gasped. There was no way he could be back.

Kensuke Aida, looking at the sky outside the school windows, turned to look at the school grounds and at the boy people were gasping at like he was a monster.

"No way," he uttered. "Toji?"

Then Hikari came by the window and saw the boy she hadn't seen in months.

The teen looked like Toji Suzuhara, but he seemed like he was woozy, like he was just coming out of deep sleep or coma.

-x-

"So, what's wrong with him?" Misato asked Ritsuko, looking into the room where Shinji was hooked to a respirator.

"We're not sure," she answered. "He's in a persistent vegetative state."

"Asuka and I were with him last night, and he was fine."

"Did Asuka hit him or kick him?"

"No. I mean, I didn't see him with any bruises."

"But we've all seen Asuka hit him enough times to know how to cause injuries to him that wouldn't have been mentioned."

"You're the expert, Rits, if there were injuries, you would've been the first to notice them. Asuka said she kicked him, thinking he was asleep, but then she turned him over and saw that he wasn't breathing."

"Yeah, the bruises on his head and shoulder confirm she hit him, but there was no major injury to his brain. And then, there's that relic around his neck that Asuka not to remove."

"I've never see Shinji with it before."

-x-

In an alley, ignored by many, between two dumpsters, seven individuals loitered around the setting. Each person, in their own way, resembled one another, but lacked certain details that the others had in their possession.

"We could've explained what happened," one of them, a boy, spoke up.

"No, let them waste their time trying to figure out what's wrong with him," another boy responded, sounding cruel, but also confident at the same time. "It's not like we'd be believed if we told them ourselves. Would you risk the truth…and our lives themselves…being found out like this?"

"I know I wouldn't," went a rather feminine voice spoke up. "Do we go out there into the city now?"

"Not yet," the confident one responded.

"How about now?" Another feminine voice spoke up.

"No."

"Go?"

"No."

"Now?" All six voices asked the confident one.

"Now we go," he answered, and they all stepped out of the alley.

Like something out of a movie belonging to the supernatural genre, all seven individuals walked out of some smoke that covered their entrance into the streets of Tokyo-3. Now out in the open, the seven were separated into five boys and two girls. The boys were dressed in the same school uniform while the two girls were dressed in summer dresses.

-x-

"This just keeps getting better and better," went Asuka, walking down the street toward the school. "The Third's in a coma and I'm forced to go without breakfast or lunch today."

As she reached the school, she noticed an ambulance out front, which indicated that somebody got hurt around the building. But she paid it no mind as she stepped onto the school grounds and entered the building to get to the classroom. There were several students around her gossiping about something she paid no mind to.

"…My parents said this guy died…"

"…There was no funeral…"

"…Didn't he have a sister…"

"…I was told he was murdered…"

"…Yet, here he is…"

"…Horaki-San was shocked to see him walk through the front gate…"

As she entered the classroom, she saw two paramedics carting away a boy. But the sight of the boy's face was what caught Asuka off her guard. She didn't know any other boys with brownish hair with a light tint to it or wore black, gym clothes like they were a fashion trend.

_No way!_ She thought, unsure if there was any other guy in school that could look anything like the Suzuhara stooge she knew died in the Unit-03 incident.

"…Class Rep…" She heard him say under an oxygen mask.

-x-

Finding an intact piano in the ruins of a few houses that didn't survive the arrival of the last Angel to invade the city, the boy from last night sat and began to play a classical song, Ode to Joy. It wasn't even eight minutes that a stray kitten came by, suffering from the defects of hunger and in need of food. The boy looked down at the kitten and stopped playing the piano.

"You poor thing," he uttered, picking up the kitten…only to start choking it.

He was close to ending its life…until he felt something strike him on the back of his neck, forcing him to release the kitten.

"You could've tried taking this defenseless animal to an animal shelter," he heard a female voice say to him as he got up. "Or contacting someone to see if they could spare some food. You don't have to commit murder and call it an act of mercy."

"Mew…" The kitten whined, and was immediately picked up and comforted.

"There, there," the voice went. "You'll be alright once you get something to eat."

As the boy got up, he turned to face his attacker and saw a girl with a rather attractive face, some boyish features, a white summer dress with a skort underneath, and long, dark hair. By her left was a boy with the same uniform, but his face had a stern expression, like he'd been the victim of cruelty and his only response to such hardship was to be cruel.

"You tried to kill an innocent life," he told the boy, bringing up his fists and hitting his knuckles three times, indicating he was about to lay down abuse. "I don't like you right now."

The girl was cradling the kitten and sat down and holding a small carton of milk.

"The difference between seduction and rage," the girl uttered, just as the boy approached the attempted cat killer, "is that vengeance has limits…that seduction will never know."

To be continued…

A/N: The arrogance of Gendo and Yui is thinking that they can decide the fate of everyone…and not expect for there to be repercussions or countermeasures. Now, their son has become a repercussion.


	2. Set into motion

Creation began on 08-19-14

Creation ended on 11-03-14

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Vengeance of the Seven: Set into motion

"…We found him laying on the ground with bruises, two broken ribs and his left arm and right leg broken," went an officer to a doctor, as the gray-haired teen that tried to kill a kitten as an act of mercy because it was starving was being brought into the hospital to have his injuries tended to. "Somebody beat the crap out of this kid and left him for dead."

As he was slipping in and out of consciousness, the boy could only think of the last thing he saw before he was found by the police officer that was out on the streets…was the boy that beat him to a pulp whilst the girl that was with him simply watched while tending to the kitten. How they seemed so similar to one another…and yet they were so different from one another at the same time. Another thing that was unusual was that they both shared a resemblance to Shinji Ikari, the boy he'd been tasked with keeping an eye on.

-x-

"…Just ten minutes, ma'am," a nurse told Hikari, as she was allowed into the room that housed the unconscious boy from school. "This is most irregular."

"Thank you, ma'am," Hikari praised her, and approached the bed of the boy that had been identified as the one and only Toji Suzuhara, mysteriously brought back to life.

She sat in front of him and slowly grasped his right hand.

"Suzuhara-Kun," she uttered. "It's really you. I don't know how…but I'm glad you're back."

Slowly, her hand was grasped in turned by his, and she looked at his face…with eyes that were hazy…but looking back her.

"Class Rep… Class Rep…" He muttered under the respirator.

-x-

"Mew," the stray kitten that had nearly been killed had mewed, some of its lost energy returning to it as played with a toy mouse being dangled in front of it by the girl with the seductive voice.

"It looks like you've made a new friend," went the boy with the anger-filled voice.

"Maybe," the seductive girl responded.

Hiding out in an abandoned house that had been partly demolished, the seven look-a-likes had regrouped after going out to explore the city that was no haven for anybody. And it was here that they each, as a result of having more individuality by being separated from each other, gained more facets to their unique positions. While they all shared a resemblance to their source of life, which had become no different from a comatose shell with some life still residing in it, they were as different as possible.

The kitten-tending girl in the white dress had a rather small bust and wore black, fingerless gloves and stockings, wearing a replica of the Purge of Seven around her neck, just above the exposed, upper curves of her bust. She…represented the source's lust, the desire for acceptance, for the belief that hope could be true to the heart and never an illusion like what had been fed to the world since the damnation that had been unleashed over fifteen years ago.

The boy with the angry tone of voice that had accompanied her and beaten the gray-haired boy almost to death, had adorned his arms with spiked wristbands that reached up to his elbows and covered his knuckles with spiked ones. He also wore a replica of the Purge of Seven on his person, but not as a necklace but as a bracelet of sorts on his right arm. By the anger alone, he clearly represented the source's anger within the heart and soul, the hatred that boiled as the breaking point had been reached…and exceeded to the point where one could die angry and become a vengeful ghost, showing great determination against future adversaries. Another way or putting his representation was wrath, the desire to cause harm to others.

Across the room from him was another look-alike boy that seemed slightly pudgy and wore a blue coat to hide his sudden weight gain as he was eating a bagel. He wore the Purge of Seven as a belt buckle. In the eyes of fellow representatives, he was a clear representation of the source's intemperance, the self-indulgence that came with seeking the kindness of others, becoming a glutton of sorts that would've done nearly anything to feel a measure of satisfaction.

"There's nothing good to eat in this city," he told them.

"I wouldn't blame you for saying such," said another look-alike in an armchair, seeming different from the rest of them. "This city is no different from a poison that had been let loose onto the world not too long ago. It covered everything and seeped into the sensitive areas. And when it gets into everything pure…it can destroy the purity and leave only the ugliness behind."

"Vengeance itself is a poison," the angry-sounding look-alike said. "It can take you over and turn you into something ugly."

"Only if you let it," he responded. "You stay in check, you can have revenge…and justice."

They all looked at the look-alike in the armchair and saw his replica of the Purge of Seven…embedded in his neck, looking almost like it had been melted into his flesh.

-x-

"…The Fifth Child was assaulted last night?" Misato questioned, seeing the bandaged form of Kaworu Nagisa on a bed in the medical ward of NERV HQ.

"Yeah, and based on what was gathered from him during his previous questioning, someone resembling the Third Child beat him almost to death," went Ritsuko to her.

In his room, Kaworu couldn't escape the nightmare of what happened to him at the hands of the boy that resembled the Third Child with an attitude while a girl that also looked like him took the kitten he was going to murder out of mercy.

-x-

"…Was this ever part of your scenario, Ikari?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo, as both were informed of Shinji's vegetative state by Ritsuko.

But Gendo didn't answer. Of course, this revelation of his son's coma wasn't at all part of his scenario, and neither was the arrival of the Fifth Child in a battered state that almost led to death itself. The next Angel would be arriving in due time, and nothing was falling into order right now. And what was most unusual (as well as impossible) was the return of the deceased Fourth Child, Toji Suzuhara.

-x-

With a renewed sense of strength upon him, Toji awoke to find himself facing a bare ceiling and smelling the scent of stale and sterilized air around him.

"_Arise and live once more, Toji Suzuhara,"_ a voice had uttered to him from somewhere, sometime ago, but he was unable to remember whose, where or when this had occurred.

_What happened?_ He wondered, rising up to a sitting position in the bed.

"Oh, you're awake," a female nurse spoke up, entering the room seconds after he awoke. "How are you feeling, sir?"

"Confused," he answered her. "I was somewhere…but then…I ended up here."

The nurse then examined his face before shining a light in his eyes.

"Follow the light," she instructed him, and he followed suit. "Okay, now how many fingers am I holding up in front of you?"

Toji saw only three extended fingers on her right hand.

"Three," he answered her.

"Your name?"

"Toji Suzuhara."

"What year is it?"

"Twenty-Fifteen, right?"

"And do you know which city you're in?"

"Tokyo-3?"

The nurse could see that most of his memory was intact; the boy just couldn't remember what had transpired in the time he'd been gone.

Knock, knock! A knock came at the door, revealing several men in black suits.

Suddenly, Toji didn't feel safe with these men present.

-x-

One of the male Shinji look-a-likes raised his head up, the one with the Purge of Seven embedded in his neck, and then got up onto his feet, catching the attention of the other six.

"Sloth," he uttered, and the other female Shinji, dressed in a modest, green sundress that extended to her knees and had shorts underneath got up off the floor, revealing her replica of the Purge of Seven as a similar embedding upon the exposed flesh on left ankle, looking like a horrid tattoo. "Come with me to NERV."

"Why?" She asked, sounding like she needed rest more than anything else right now.

"You'll know when we get there," he spoke in riddles, and the girl followed him out of the abandoned house toward their destination.

"Walking is too much effort," she complained to him.

"The only way for those with dark intent to succeed…is for those like yourself to put no effort into what they do each day," he told her. "A friend needs our assistance and a reprieve from another premature judgment day that was better off avoided."

-x-

"…No way!" Asuka gasped, seeing Toji within NERV HQ. "This can't be possible! He's dead!"

"Not anymore, he's not," Misato expressed, unable to believe the sight in front of her eyes. "All his tests came back positive. This is Toji Suzuhara, the Fourth Child."

"But what is he doing here?!" The redhead demanded to know. "He's of no use to anyone! His Eva got possessed and reduced to pieces while he was crushed in the Entry Plug! Why is he here?!"

"Commander Ikari's orders," Misato explained, though she was unhappy about this herself.

It was mainly because Shinji had decided to leave after Toji had been killed by his father's decision to use an untested autopilot system that made Unit-01 the merciless beast that it was that day the Angel that possessed Unit-03 appeared. If this was because Toji was going to be asked to pilot again, she couldn't help but wonder if Shinji would do something to disagree with this possibility. Maybe the Fourth Child's mysterious return from the dead was the very reason the Third Child had become a vegetable that had been living in her flat for several months now.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the second chapter to this story that some of you were wanting to see. It'll be a while before the next chapter, but have faith…and patience. Patience is a virtue, you know. Peace!


	3. Zero Ego

Creation began on 10-17-15

Creation ended on 03-15-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Vengeance of the Seven: Zero Ego

A/N: It's been a long time since I gotten back to this story.

They were surprised to see these two. All of NERV was on edge when they came in. They looked so much like the vegetative Third Child, but the young man seemed different, personality-wise, from the boy that hated piloting the Eva.

"How is this possible?" Misato wondered, watching the young man that claimed to be affiliated with Shinji through the glass mirror of the interrogation room.

"Their DNA tests came back," went Ritsuko, who had taken the man and woman's blood to confirm their identities, and found herself wishing she hadn't. "They're both Shinji Ikari, but that's impossible. He's completely comatose."

"Clones, perhaps?" Misato suggested.

"No, clones have slightly-altered DNA. These two are genetically identical to him, down to the last strand of their DNA. This is beyond anything we've ever seen before."

The young man that was Shinji…and wasn't Shinji, looked at the mirror in front of him, knowing that he was being watched outside, and uttered, "Unless there's a creature that you call an Angel attacking because of some blight that select members of the human race committed less than two decades ago, I would like to get started in a conversation about what is going to happen. While we're still alive, that is. I understand why some people believe youth is wasted on the young, but I feel that my time, and that of Shinji's, is being wasted by the likes of you, people that are either too smart for their own good…or too ignorant of who's truly responsible for the damnation that we're heading towards unless we turn away."

Ritsuko and Misato looked at him and wondered what was really going on.

-x-

"…So, will you consider piloting the Eva once more, Mr. Suzuhara?" Fuyutsuki, on orders from Gendo, asked the resurrected Fourth Child, who had recovered more in the time spent in the Geo-Front.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I can't go through that again," Toji answered him. "Believe it or not, Shinji told me not to do it again."

"He told you not to? When was this?"

"I don't know when this was, but I know it was he that told me. He's felt nothing but shame and guilt after I was unnecessarily killed in the Unit-03 incident, but now that I'm back, he doesn't have that weight on his heart. But that doesn't mean that something worse than that day could happen if I got back inside an Eva, so I must decline on the offer."

-x-

"…Did you beat up the Fifth Child, Shinji Ikari?" A man asked the younger man that resembled Shinji in the room.

"The Fifth Child? Oh, you mean that gray-haired boy with the red eyes and a lack of respect towards the weakest creatures," he responded. "No, it wasn't me. One of my brothers beat him up. You see, he was about to kill a kitten as a so-called mercy, and my brother and one of my two sisters intervened and saved the kitten's life. She took a liking to the kitten. While I admit that my brother may have gone too far on the boy, I do feel that he got exactly what he deserved for trying to kill a defenseless animal."

Outside the room, Misato and Ritsuko had observed this interrogation and the faux-blond woman uttered, "I don't recall Shinji being this… Well, not like this."

"What about the other one?" Misato asked. "The girl that looks like him?"

"She seems to lack any motivation in engaging in extended conversation or anything that requires effort to be thrown in. To her, anything NERV does, including just walking around, is too much effort for her to do."

"…I wouldn't get back into the Eva," the young man resembling Shinji expressed in his interrogation. "Not even if you raised a gun to my face. It's unnecessary, and a waste. It killed Toji when that bastard decided his life was to be forfeit in order to defeat the Angel that possessed Unit-03. The Eva is meant to protect mankind? Don't make me laugh. Eva is nothing more than a harbinger of pain and death, and you rely on it, deluding yourselves into thinking it's worth the hardships you've gone through in order to deal with the Angels, God's messengers. You people pervert creation and play at being God when you're closer to the Devil this way."

"This is insubordination coming from you, Third Child," the man interrogating him expressed.

"And what is truly insubordination, hmm? I refuse to follow orders, and you say I'm out of line? I speak my mind, and you call me treasonous? I hate to sound foul, but for one tasked with interrogating me, you are pretty naive. But call it what you will. I am simply stating what few people will…and what I couldn't before. None of us could until we needed to be more than the sum of our lives. There's only so much you can do and be with a sum."

-x-

"…I'm tired, I'm cranky, and I just want to take a nap," the female Shinji expressed to the other guy interrogating her, but found interrogating her to be a waste of time because she lacked any motivation to speak or do anything. "Interrogation is too much effort. Talking is too much effort. Even sitting at this table is too much effort!"

"Is everything you do too much effort?" The man asked her.

"What can I say? I'm the weakest of my siblings. I represent the part of us that has potential, but no will to use it. I have the capacity to do anything, but I have no mandate, no agenda within me, to do anything at all."

-x-

"He looks so much like him, Major Katsuragi," went Rei to Misato, viewing the Shinji look-alike in the room. "But there is something different with him."

"Yes, there is," she agreed with her. "It's like he has more of an ego, but it's not like anyone else's."

"What is that mark on his neck?"

Misato then took notice of what Rei had just questioned; initially, she hadn't seen the mark on his neck, but now saw it as clear as day. It looked as though he had been branded.

"My pride!" They then heard him shout out. "I know you're out there looking at my neck! It's a symbol of my pride! Pride as a person! Pride as an individual! Pride, and nothing more!"

-x-

Gendo was confused as to why there were these two teens that had a genetic relation to the Third Child, resemble the boy, but behave differently from. He didn't imagine Shinji with either an ego of air around him or as a girl that was so lazy to lack any interest in anything around her.

"What is going on here?" He demanded.

-x-

After being given his discharge papers, Toji was permitted to leave the base. He would at least be able to see his sister again, who had been discharged from the hospital to go home after the so-called cover story of her brother's death; NERV needed to come up with an elaborate cover up for why Toji was alive when he should be dead. But none of that really mattered to him, as he just wanted to go home and get away from any further involvement with NERV.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's the third chapter.


End file.
